Canalside developments rubbished by planning department
A group of protesters led by the well-known author Phillip Pullman has succeeded in getting planning permission refused for a development on the canal side in Jericho, Oxford.
Plans to build apartments on the site of the now derelict Castle Mill Boatyard were initially refused by Oxford City council, which led to an appeal by developers. Protesters then forced a full public inquiry in which a planning inspector described the developer’s plans as ‘sterile’ and ‘uninspiring’.
The site has numerous literary connections, as the home of Pullman’s boat-dwelling people ‘the Gyptians’ from his trilogy, His Dark Materials, and featured in the Inspector Morse series.